Tag: Lead Adventure

Scrappers – Rounding Off The Crew And Some Truly Dodgy Painting

So after a very satisfying win in our first game, I was all a flush with points to spend after the campaign stage of the game.  Enough to buy some new kit and at least 2 new crew members.  Therefore there was more hurried painting in the days between games, so as to be ready on time.

Luckily a quick paint job was all that was needed for the first of them.  I don’t know about you but when I look at this chap, I see a cyborg electric eel! So he is half machine, half shock inducing mutant eel-man…  With a gun…

In that moment of creativity and bouncing along with the first real win for me in months I feel I may have got carried away.  Stay with me as I explain the horror that is the paint job above…

As these are birds, and birds have feathers, and as feathers are usually bright (in my mind anyway…) I thought I would try a bird of paradise look for the first of these chaps.

Now, I have had some bad ideas in the past.  None was as obvious as after adding the first colour and noting that the figure doesn’t actually have feathers exactly but more of a fur ruff and woolly pant suit.

What made things worse was that a second one needed painting in a similar style or they would not look matched…

I think that I last painted things like this when I was 3 years old. When I used my fingers not paint brushes…

That was before I discovered ink washes though.  One heavy coat later and its almost hidden.

If birds of paradise were hooked on drugs, grumpy and cranky due to poor working conditions, and didn’t wash more than once a year you might see the resemblances.

All in all they fit the crew quite well.

Anyway, if you had such shocking feather/ fur colourisation you would be reluctant to wash too often as well… Wouldn’t you?

Scrappers – More Crew Members

As 3 figures does not make a well rounded scrappers crew, the next 3 were lined up to be finished off.  Three specialists (grunts with jobs) make up the next lot.

The first is a ‘tank’ slow, thick skinned and heavily armoured.  Second is a close combat specialist (although a read through of the rules makes me think that he maybe making a mistake bringing a knife, or two, to a gun fight…). Last of this lot is my little tinker.  Small lightly armed and quick mind and feet.  Who knows if I will need a tech boy but always worth bringing some brains.

After totting up the crew roster for the first six chaps, I found that I still had enough points left for a low tech, crossbow wielding dog boy.

As I finished planning my force for our first official game, I already had their reinforcements lined up ready in the painting queue.  As Scrappers is a campaign based game I expect to have enough points after the first game to hire a fresh faced new recruit (or replace a dead dude).  These three are from CP models.

Scrappers – First Crew Started

So, after owning the book since it came out, we got to play scrappers for the first time recently.  First impressions are good and a little more play will likely secure it as a go to game for quick and dirty gunfights.  Even after just the one game we were left thinking armour is a key requirement in this game.

Before I could play though I needed a crew.  These guys have been sat on the shelf of shame for far too long and it was nice to get them started at least.

My crew is a band of mutant Freelancers, all themed on animal traits (at first anyhow). They are a mix of figures that I have shown off before. Some are Hasslefree miniatures, some from the Rogue Stars range and a couple of Mantics Deadzone figures. The odd chap out is Tinboy Tim their trusty synthetic service bot (an Astropolis figure by Lead Adventures).

First finished were the Hasslefree chaps and Tim. Simple colours this time as these guys are the professionals in the team and therefore not wanting to be shot up because of any gaudy space suits.

The next guys might get a slightly brighter or more exotic colour choice.

Steam Wars – Navy Backlog And More

So, as I take a brief pause in Steam Wars painting, its time to look at what is left to be done.

Pretty much everything is undercoated, 2 Ironclad transports are the largest land based vehicles, a bit of artillery and some gun/ targeting drones should be quite quick to finish.  The second Gyrocopter wont be to hard either.

The Ironclad Submarine will likely be last on the list but also easy to finish.  More deck gunners are lurking at the back and a Gatling gun might be soon to be done.

HMLS Gladstone was purchased as the first item for the force and at this rate might be last painted as I just find it less appealing than a lot of other bits.  Only a couple of units of infantry are left with just a few heroes to add in as well.

Then I can get properly started on the Martians…  Six tripods await.

Along with a horde of low tech infantry and assorted cephalopod troopers and armoured suits.

Steam Wars – New Units For Next Game

A final draft of Steam Wars has again been created by Coronasan. So, happily, it is playtest time again.  I have a large Steam Navy force that serves me for this game but it remains unfinished at present.  As I pick up bits along the way and add units here and there the painting queue for this army seems to become quite static.

I have decided though, that as Coronasan has completed three armies for Steam Wars in the same amount of time, I shall try to get the Navy completed. If I get that done, I can then better focus on the Martian Invasion Force that I have also started for Steam Wars.

These painted Rollerbots are the product of that decision so far.  The first two were done at the start of the Navy project and I ran them as vehicles at first.  They are small figures for vehicles and had weak profiles.  They also took up a vehicle slot each in the army, which didn’t help either.

I plan to run them as a form of heavy cavalry (or bikers) in the next game.  That way they stay fast like vehicles but will use up an infantry slot (elite troops).

I have three light antitank bots and two HMG bots.  In Steam Wars, unit size is dictated by wounds (max 6 wounds to a unit). Therefore, as each will be profiled with two wounds, three bots will be the unit size.  I could do with one more of these models to give me the option to field them as a variety of different three bot unit configurations.

The figures are from The Lead Adventure Miniature range and the only one left, that I don’t have, is armed with a rocket launcher.  Maybe that’s the one to finish the set.

For our playtest session I plan to use a second new unit.  This time its some specialist heavy infantry.  They are coming along nicely at the moment.  More on those later…

Steam Wars – Testing Is Over And The Painting Starts In Ernest.

With the test model now supported by his 4 friends it is time to roll out the same paint job to some other units.  For my first batch of figures I have a second infantry unit (this time with normal rifles) a small carriage gun, with more crew than it probably needs, and 2 rollerball robots.

I have decided, as a naval force, they would be likely to have plenty of Battleship Grey paint to hand. Therefore, all their vehicles will be painted in this colour, to contrast nicely with the white of the infantry.

The tall mechanical roller robots are Lead Adventure Predator Steam Robots.

The field gun and crew are from Tiger Miniatures Balkan Wars range.

The Infantry are all Black Pyramid Tea Wars miniatures.

Its a small force to start with but we hope to get a game in very soon to try them out.  I think Coronasan’s Navy Marines may be deployed in support to add some more man power to the first force.

The basing helps to blend the robots and gun in with the rest of the force but I may need to get some beach scenery done too or they will look like they still have sand on their boots while walking in green fields…